René Benko

René Benko (born 20 May 1977) is a bankrupt Austrian real estate, media and retail investor, and was the founder of the Signa Holding.

[1][2] Benko was considered one of the richest Austrians and had very good relations with leading politicians in Austria from all parties.

[9][10][11] Benko was born in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria as the son of a local government employee and nursery schoolteacher.

[12] At the age of 17 he gained his first experience of the real estate sector in a building company owned by an acquaintance.

[19] The first projects included the extension of attics into luxury apartments and the profitable purchase and sale of the health hotel Lanserhof in Lans.

[20] After these successes, the Viennese entrepreneur Karl Kovarik, who inherited several gas stations, contributed to the first financial jump-start with 25 million euros.

In 2008, the former headquarters of Länderbank and Bank Austria became the property of Signa Holding and was converted into the Park Hyatt Vienna hotel.

Another milestone was the approval of the WaltherPark shopping center in Bolzano in 2016 by a referendum, there have also been further expansions in e-commerce since 2017,[27] such as the acquisition of Probikeshop or hood.de.

[32] In November 2018, the first investment in the media sector was announced through the acquisition of shares in the Austrian daily newspapers Kronen Zeitung and Kurier by Signa Holding.

[38][39] In 2021, Signa acquired the British luxury department stores of Selfridges in a joint venture with Central Group.

Moreover, Signa Sports United completed its business combination with Yucaipa Acquisition Corporation and started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 15 December 2021.

[44] In February 2024, The Wall Street Journal stated that "Appraisers valued the company’s office properties at 41 times the income they produced in 2021, corporate filings show.

Comparable publicly traded office companies’ property portfolios were valued around 20 to 25 times income, according to Green Street, a real-estate advisory firm.